We went on my family's annual pontoon boat trip to Detroit Lake yesterday.  I do love swimming, but always wonder what is lurking under the surface of the water.  I have to specifically not think about the fish and who-knows-what is under there (my niece is worried about dead bodies under the water) or I wouldn't be able to get in the water.  My nephew Braden knows this, and thought it would be pretty fun to swim a long way underwater and pop up when I was not paying attention.  When I first saw him all I noticed was bleached blond hair and goggles emerging from the deep and for a split second I thought it was a shark/robot/piranha/zombie/all-my-nightmares-are-coming-true type of thing.

(He managed to scare me a dozen more times too.)

Oh yes, Christmas is going to fun this year.  For me. 

Emma picking the grass…

Emma thinking about eating the grass…

Emma eating the grass…

Emma regretting eating the grass…

(Hurrah for camera's with a sport mode setting!)

We have a couple of kneeling pads we keep in the back yard for the kids to use if they are doing sidewalk chalk or bubbles.  I'd like to tell you we use them for "gardening" or "weed pulling" or "yard maintenance" but… umm… no. 

They look like this…

A couple of days ago Rogene went out in the backyard to turn on the sprinklers, and this is what he found…

Now, I'm not sure what type of animal did this but my guesses are…

1. Cat
2. Dog
3. Raccoon
4. Opossum
5. Refuse to consider other options so don't leave any in the comments… la-la-la-can't-hear-you (ears plugged/loud singing)

Emma's kitty Lillyanna is the 2nd one.

Tessa kitty Lollyanna is the 3rd one.

The other two are their brothers Pax and Jax who have gone on to new homes.

… and yesterday I finally heard it.

Tessa:  "Emma, you are not the boss of me!"

School has been out for almost a week.

Tessa has been playing school a lot.

Today she told me it was craft time and I was going to make a card with cherries on it.

She even wrote my name on it for me…

"Stale"

The shoes they make for kids these days… are AWESOME!  (These are Tessa's new favorites.)

Goggles (or gogglegoks as they are known in our household) can really make a kid smile.

If your sister won't smile for the camera, give her a helping hand.

My friends Shanell and Aleta were passing through town on their way to the airport last Monday. I offered to make them sack lunches for their air plane trip because you never get as hungry as when you walk on the airplane and realize there is only peanuts and a small drink for the next several hours. 

Here is a list of the things I wanted to do to their lunches, but did not, because I'm all about being a grown up these days…

Let Emma put Dora stickers all over the brown paper bags.

Throw away the brown paper bags and use the Elmo lunch boxes.

Write a silly note (like I do for Tessa every day)

Put Dora fruit snacks in the lunches

Cut their sandwiches up into little tiny pieces

Take the grapes off the stems and cut them in half (to reduce the choking hazard of course!)

Include a happy meal toy or some crayons and paper.

I restrained myself as much as I possibly could.  Shanell and Aleta, I hope you enjoyed the Nerds!

Oh, it's just Braden and Kiara wearing Tessa and Emma's Hannah Montana wigs.   

(I want my money back!)

Rogene:  I didn't sleep very well last night.  I was cold.  You stole the blankets again, and you lie diagonally across the bed. 

Me:  You snore.  Loud.

Rogene:  I wouldn't snore if you didn't steal the blankets.  I snore because I'm cold!

Someone call the AMA, we've discovered the cause of snoring!